Missing Padfoot
by Faerie of Lightwater Forest
Summary: This oneshot takes place the day after Bellatrix Lestrange killed Sirius Black. My OC, Remi Sluefur, an Auror and member of the Order of the Phoenix, was once Sirius Black's girlfriend. In this story, she mourns her lost lover and has some flashbacks.


Author's Note: I wrote this when I was fourteen, the summer before I started high school… I'm in college now. Needless to say, my writing has improved a lot during the five years since I wrote Missing Padfoot. I have gone through and done a minor amount of editing to the story, but I have to say that, rereading it, I'm realizing how much my writing has changed and how much work this story needs. Even so, please R&R, I suppose. I might rewrite this someday.

Also, rereading _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_, I've realized that Tonks was in St. Mungo's the day after Sirius died because of injuries she sustained during the battle at the Ministry, and therefore should not be at work the following morning talking to Remi. Whoops.

Remi Sluefur stared at the article in the _Daily Prophet_ proclaiming Sirius Black III dead. She was in shock. Sirius Black, the man she loved, had been murdered, just last night, by his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange. He had been killed at the Ministry of Magic, fighting Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. And it was all to protect the Potter boy... Tears filled her eyes as she began to remember...

_She was only a third year Ravenclaw and found herself gazing across the Great Hall at the handsomest boy in the year: Sirius Black, of Gryffindor. Remi couldn't quite remember when it was, exactly, that she had fallen in love with him. All she knew was that she had never felt this way before. She knew she was attractive, so perhaps she stood a chance, however she was quite aware of the fact that she was not the only one who fancied him. Therefore, she had some heavy competition. Suddenly, Sirius looked up from the Gryffindor table, and Remi's gaze locked with his. She thought her heart skipped a beat as she gazed into those dark, sexy eyes..._

Remi poured herself a cup of black coffee and turned toward the window of her tiny London flat. She looked down at the street below, with all of the cars driving by. _The busy lives of Muggles,_ Remi thought bitterly. She took another sip of black coffee.

_She was in fifth year now, and was a Ravenclaw Prefect, along with Davey Gudgeon, who asked her out an average of twice a week. On this night they were on Prefect Duty together._

_"What was that?" Gudgeon asked, turning around and pointing his lit wand down the corridor. _

_"It was probably nothing," Remi replied coolly, not even sparing a glance at her companion. Suddenly she heard a crash. She turned around. _

_"I_ told _you I heard something," Gudgeon said gleefully, and the pair started down the corridor. As they rounded the corner, they saw a large, expensive-looking vase lying shattered on the floor._

_"Who did this?" Remi murmured. _

_Just then, a familiar voice said loudly, "Gudgeon! Gudgeon, step away from the girl!" Instinctively, Remi turned to find the perverted prat standing frozen, staring at her, with his hand inches from her arse._

_"YOU PRAT!" she shouted, and Gudgeon jumped away from her._

_"Get away, Gudgeon," the voice said, and Davey Gudgeon spun around, turning his head from side to side, while Remi laughed as she recognized the voice._

_"Sirius!" Remi cried, as a huge bang sounded, causing the cowardly Gudgeon to run away. _

_"Sirius, where are you?" Remi called, her eyes still watery from laughter._

_"Right here, Remi!" Sirius said, and Remi jumped and screamed slightly as Sirius Black and his best mate, James Potter, appeared out of thin air._

_"Don't worry, Sluefur, it's an invisibility cloak," Potter said, holding up the silvery garment to show her. _

_"Wow," Remi said, stepping forward to touch the liquidy material. _

_"Thanks, Prongs, but I'll take it from here," Sirius said in a significant voice. _

_James looked at him for a moment, then shrugged and said, "Alright, then. Good luck, Padfoot," and disappeared under the cloak again. _

_Remi and Sirius waited until James' footsteps could no longer be heard, then Sirius smiled at Remi and gestured at the vase. _

_"Sorry about this. You're not going to report me or dock points from Gryffindor, are you?" he asked rather playfully._

_Remi sighed, then returned his grin, replying, "No, of course I'm not. You're far too attractive for me to do that." _

_They both smirked at these words, and then Sirius asked quietly, "Shall I walk you back to your common room?"_

_Remi quietly agreed, so the couple headed down the corridor with Remi leading the way to Ravenclaw Tower. _

_They walked in silence for a little while, and then Remi stopped._

_"It's just around the corner, I can go the rest of the way on my own," she said quietly, without looking at him._

_He stood there for a little while, and she knew he was staring at her. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to look into his dark eyes. They gazed at each other for a moment. Then he leaned down and kissed her..._

Remi drained the last bit of her coffee and threw the mug onto the overwhelming pile of unwashed dishes in the sink. She then stripped out of her dressing gown and nightdress, moved into the tiny loo, and turned the shower on. She stood there for a moment, before she stepped inside, as another memory seized her...

_Remi was in her sixth year and it was a Hogsmeade weekend. She had wanted to spend the afternoon with Sirius, but much to her annoyance, he'd made other plans, which probably included him and his friends tormenting the oily-haired Slytherin boy, Severus Snape._

_So now she was in Honeydukes with her best friends: Carney Miscuss of Hufflepuff, Lily Evans of Gryffindor, and, surprisingly, Amvera Reptilia, Severus Snape's own Slytherin girlfriend and cousin to James Potter. Like Remi, Amvera had hoped to spend the time in Hogsmeade with her boyfriend, but it seemed that Snape, like Sirius, had made other plans. Remi suspected that Snape was planning on ambushing the Marauders in one of his rather fruitless attempts at revenge._

_"Where is Rini?" Carney asked Amvera. Rini was Amvera's Slytherin cousin. She was a year younger than her, but often hung around Amvera and her friends._

_Amvera shrugged in reply to Carney's question, then muttered stiffly, "She's on a date with Regulus Black."_

_Remi began to grind her teeth. Regulus was Sirius' younger brother. He was Rini's age, and he was in Slytherin. Regulus and Rini had just started going out a few months ago. Remi was slightly annoyed that Regulus had been courteous enough to spend time with his girlfriend when his brother, Sirius, was not._

_"Oh, they've got a new flavour of sugar quill!" Lily exclaimed, making her way toward the display. Amvera followed her with interest. Remi, however, stayed where she was, instead of buying candy with Lily and Amvera._

_"I'm sure he'll spend next weekend with you, Remi," Carney said gently, as if she were reading her friend's thoughts. Remi nodded noncommittally. _

_Just then, a wizard came running out of the cellar, yelling, "Ghosts! Ghosts! It's haunted down there, I tell you, it's haunted!"_

_Many people in the shop began to gasp and chatter about what the wizard had just said. Then students began to flood out the door. Lily and Amvera hurried back over to Carney and Remi to ensure the friends didn't lose each other in the crowd of Hogwarts students moving toward the door. _

_Carney's eyes were wide now. "Do you really think there are ghosts down in the cellar?"_

_"It's quite possible, I suppose," Amvera answered, shrugging. "I personally don't see what the fuss is about; ghosts are nothing to be afraid of. I mean, come on, what can they do to you?" Carney still looked frightened, but Remi agreed with Amvera, and so, apparently, did Lily._

_"Maybe we should go see for ourselves if the Honeydukes cellar is haunted," she said, looking at Amvera for support._

_Amvera nodded. "Why not?" she asked, and Remi agreed. The three looked expectantly at Carney, who sighed, and muttered a reluctant agreement. So the foursome headed up to the counter where the frazzled-looking wizard was talking animatedly to a pale, wide-eyed co-worker._

_"Hey, you," Amvera said loudly. _

_Lily shot her a "don't be rude to this person" look and said boldly, "Excuse me, sir, could you tell us what, exactly, it was that you saw down there?"_

_The two wizards turned their attention to the witches standing before them. They stared for a moment, then the man that had come out of cellar said slowly, "Well... I-I didn't exactly_ see _anything, b-but I heard voices, and I couldn't see where they were coming from. Wouldn't that mean that there are ghosts?"_

_"Not necessarily," Remi said quickly, thinking of James Potter's invisibility cloak. _

_Amvera nodded in agreement."Yeah, and even if there were any ghosts, what's the big deal? I mean, seriously... can ghosts hurt people? I mean, a ghost really isn't anything but an imprint of a departed soul." _

_Lily smiled slightly at Amvera's words and Carney had a look on her face that plainly said, "There she goes again." Remi smiled slightly. Amvera was quite intelligent and was very proud of the fact that she probably was a genius._

_There was silence for a moment, and then the man said simply, "If you don't believe me, go down and see for yourself." So Remi, Carney, Lily, and Amvera stepped behind the counter one by one and headed down the stairs into the Honeydukes cellar._

_There were a lot of wooden crates in the area, all full of sweets, Remi deduced, and then her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of laughter._

_"This is great; I mean he had absolutely no idea! He thought we were ghosts!"_

_"I know, what a prank, eh, Wormtail? I mean, come on, we could take anything we like... for free!"_

_"Now, now... Sirius... I'm not sure if we should be steal-"_

_"Ah, Moony, listen to you... you truly are the saintly prefect, aren't you?"_

_"Ha ha, he sure is, Prongs! Ah... you know, I do feel rather bad for not taking Remi out, though..."_

_"So... bring her some candy, mate!"_

_And the laughter continued. Remi and her friends exchanged looks, then Lily tossed her red hair boldly and started toward the voices. Remi and the others smiled and followed her. Remi was glad that Sirius felt guilty, and she still wanted to have a little fun with him._

_"Oh, I do wish Evans was here," James Potter continued, and Peter Pettigrew gave an annoying giggle._

_"Yeah, well, listen, mate..." Sirius said, then paused, and said a bit more quietly, "It would probably be fun for you if you took Evans down into that passage and gave her a little shag, eh mate?" The response to this was more laughter._

_Remi glanced at Lily. She was red in the face and looked both embarrassed and enraged. Remi gave her friends a sly look and they nodded. They had snuck up on the Marauders before, and it was their custom to use a spell that Amvera had taught them: the Levicorpus Spell. _

_The girls moved forward and followed the voices, and then raised their wands in unison when they were as close to the laughter as they needed to be. The boys must've been laughing so hard they hadn't noticed that they were no longer alone. Remi held up three fingers, and put them down one at a time, counting down. Then she thought,_ Levicorpus!_ Her companions had clearly done the same, for there were shouts from the Marauders and a great flash of light, and the invisibility cloak lay on the floor as four teenage boys struggled with the black robes falling over their heads as they dangled from their ankles._

_The girls doubled over with laughter as the boys shouted at them, and then a voice shouted, "WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE?" Remi immediately recognized the voice. It was the wizard that had heard the Marauders in the first place._

_"Quick, let us down!" Peter Pettigrew pleaded. Remi couldn't help but think of how the annoying bastard was such a whiner._

_"Please, Remi!" Sirius said quickly. _

_Remi looked at him and sighed, then waved her wand, thought,_ Liberacorpus, _and there was another flash of light and he fell to the ground. He quickly pulled out his own wand then and let down his mates, since the girls didn't help him out._

_"It was great to see you, Evans," James said, running his hand through his hair. Lily rolled her eyes._

_"Yeah, and it was excellent to see you, Remi," Sirius said quietly, and brushed a strand of black hair out of her face. He leaned down and kissed her gently, then whispered in her ear, "Meet me behind the greenhouse tonight at midnight." And with a flourish from Potter, the Marauders had become invisible once more, and Sirius was gone._

Remi stepped into the shower and allowed the warm water to cascade over her. She began to lather her hair when she thought of what had happened behind the greenhouses that night. Despite her pain, she couldn't suppress a small smile...

_Remi moved across the grounds with nothing but the small pool of golden light cast by her wand to guide her. It was a very dark night. She made her way to the greenhouses when she began to call for Sirius. She stopped abruptly as her wandlight fell upon a large, bear-like dog. She gasped, and watched its eyes glow. It watched her for a moment, then padded toward her and nosed her hip. She smiled, and extinguished her wand. Then she gasped again and shrieked as the dog turned into Sirius. He quickly placed his hand over her mouth._

_"Shhh! I'm an unregistered animagus. You can't tell_ anyone, _you understand?"_

_Remi nodded. Sirius removed his hand from her mouth and appeared relieved._

_"Good."_

_He surveyed her for a moment, then seized her and pressed his lips on hers. She was shocked for a moment, and then gave in to the kiss as she embraced him. He opened his mouth and licked her lips until she opened up to him. After a moment she returned the kiss, her tongue exploring his mouth. _

_"Do you...?" he began to ask, but was cut off as Remi kissed him. Then she nodded, and he gently pushed her onto the grass..._

_They lay out there for a while afterwards, watching the constellations above them._

Remi stepped out of the shower and continued somewhat clumsily out of the loo. She found her wand and used it as a hairdryer. When her dark locks weren't dripping all over the place, she hurried and found a nice clean set of crimson robes. She put them on and stood in front of the mirror, smoothing them and straightening them. She glanced at the clock. Her sadness was no excuse for being late for work. Besides, the Aurors were supposed to get to the Ministry as quickly as possible because of the murder committed and the dozen or so Death Eaters that had been captured last night. Many Aurors had already arrived in the middle of the night, but some, like Remi, were not trusted to show up immediately for the suspicions of being close to Dumbledore. And Ministry suspicions were correct for once: Remi was a member of the Order of the Phoenix.

The Order of the Phoenix had a headquarters, of course, as surely all secret organizations do, and this one was found at twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. It was Sirius Black's house. He had inherited it and donated it to Dumbledore so that the Order had a place to meet; however, what would happen to the house now that its owner was dead remained to be seen. It was quite possible that the Order would have to locate a new headquarters. That made no difference to Remi; she never wanted to set foot on Grimmauld Place again. There were memories there, too, after all, such as the joy-filled one in which Remi and Sirius were reunited after the latter had spent thirteen years in Azkaban, and then another year on the run...

_Remi was heading to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters for the first time. She was going there straight from work, so she took the visitor's entrance out of the Ministry and tried to find her way around London. She normally used Floo powder to get to work, and hadn't used the visitor's entrance in a long time, so it took her a moment to figure out where she was. Then she made her way to the underground and decided to take a train._

_Eventually, after an underground train ride and a long walk, Remi found the Square she was searching for. She took a look at the addresses on the houses. She was standing outside number eleven. She looked to the left and saw number ten. To the right, however, was number thirteen. She thought for a moment, remembering what Dumbledore had told her to do, and then thought,_ The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. _Sure enough, no sooner had Remi reached the part about number twelve, Grimmauld Place, than a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen, followed swiftly by dirty walls and grimy windows. It was as though an extra house had inflated, pushing those on either side out of its way. She smiled, took a deep breath then, and went up the steps. She hesitated then, standing outside the door, thinking of how she was about to see the man she loved for the first time in over fourteen years. In all that time she had thought him a traitor and a killer, and now she knew the truth: that Sirius Black was innocent, and that Peter Pettigrew was still alive. It was_ his _fault that Lily and James had died, not Sirius'. So Remi braced herself and rang the doorbell. There was a moment during which she could hear screaming and shouting on the other side of the door, and then she heard many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the clatter of a chain._ _The door creaked open, and there stood the werewolf, Remus Lupin._

_"Ah, Remi! Come in, come in!" he whispered as he gave her a kind smile and stepped back to allow her to pass him inside the house. Remi stared in wonder. There were old-fashioned gas lamps all along the walls, casting a flickering insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet of a long, gloomy hallway, where a cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls. Both the chandelier and the candelabra on a rickety table nearby were shaped like serpents._

_"The meeting doesn't start for another half hour, so why don't I take you down to the kitchen?" Lupin whispered. Remi nodded as she took another glance around. This time she took in the pair of long, moth-eaten curtains that looked as if they could conceal a door. _

_Lupin lead her down the hallway then, and as they passed these curtains, Remi asked in a whisper, "Why are we whispering?" _

_"So that we don't wake any portraits, such as Walburga Black over there," Lupin whispered back as he indicated the curtains. Remi nodded in understanding as the pair headed down a dark staircase that ended with a door, which Remus opened and smiled at Remi indicating that she should step inside. So she did. _

_She registered the long kitchen table when she noticed who was sitting at it. The shaggy-haired man jumped to his feet, knocking over his chair in the process, as he stared in shock at the woman who had just entered his kitchen. Remi smiled and ran to him, crying out, "SIRIUS! SIRIUS, FINALLY I'VE SEEN YOU AGAIN!" And as Sirius smiled and cried out Remi's name, he opened his arms and the couple embraced each other._

Remi took a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace so that green flames erupted upon the ashes. Remi stepped inside and shouted, "Ministry of Magic!" and then closed her eyes as she began to spin. She crossed her arms to ensure that she didn't accidentally touch anything; touching something outside the Floo Network might make her end up coming out at the wrong place. When she felt the spinning stop, she stood for a moment to allow her head to stop hurting (traveling by Floo Powder often gave Remi a headache) and then she opened her eyes and stepped out of the fireplace. She headed toward the golden grilles, on the other side of which were the lifts that would take her to Auror Headquarters.

In the lift, people were chattering about how they were so surprised that Sirius Black was innocent, and that he had been murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange on Ministry property. They also discussed how Harry Potter, the "Chosen One" as they had already started calling him, had led five teenage friends into the fabled Hall of Prophecy in the Department of Mysteries to battle a legion of Death Eaters and the Dark Lord Voldemort himself. Remi was sure the _Prophet_ had made the story a bit different then the truth, but the basics were correct; after all, six teenagers _had _been in the Department of Mysteries last night, and Harry Potter _had_ been one of them, and they _had_ fought a dozen or so Death Eaters, and, most unnerving of all, Harry Potter _had_ actually encountered He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named...

_Voldemort_, Remi decided. Sirius had had the guts to say the Dark Lord's name, so Remi did, as well.

Once Remi was sitting in her cubicle, she couldn't help but feel lonelier than ever. _Last time I sat here_, she thought sadly, _Sirius was still alive... and he and I ate supper together that night._ She sighed, and placed her head on her arms.

"Wotcher, Remi." Remi looked up quickly to see fellow Auror and Order of the Phoenix member, Nymphadora Tonks. The metamorphmagus looked sympathetic, and not as cheerful as she normally was. Remi noticed the absence of the younger witch's spiked bubble-gum pink hair. Today her mousy hair was brown.

"Hello... Tonks..." Remi said miserably, glancing away from her lover's second cousin.

Tonks placed her hand on Remi's arm. "Remi... listen, I'm really sorry about... about what happened... last night."

Remi said nothing.

"I know what it's like... to love someone..." Tonks continued.

Remi made an unintelligible noise.

Tonks sighed, and said simply, "You know, Remi, you'll probably see him again."

Remi looked up at Tonks in disbelief. "How?" was all she could choke out.

Tonks smiled. "You know... in the Department of Mysteries, there is a veil... and it was that veil that Sirius fell through. I heard that there are voices that can be heard inside that veil... that is why they call that room the Death Chamber." She looked at Remi for a moment, then patted her shoulder and said, "Food for thought," and left the older witch sitting there. But Remi didn't feel quite so empty after hearing Tonks' words. Maybe she actually _would_ see her beloved Sirius again some day...

But until then, Remi Sluefur would always be... missing Padfoot.

A/N: Yeah, so this fic was submitted to Mugglenet Fanfiction, but they rejected it, and I figured out it was because a scene was a bit too... adult. I took that part out, so this fic is a lot cleaner now.


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